Who's Cheating Whom

Australians like to think their sports stars play fair but now it's alleged there's widespread drug taking and links with organised crime. How far does it go?

Transcript

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MONDAY 22ND APRIL 2013

The Australian Crime Commission stunned sports fans when it announced it had evidence of the widespread use of peptides and hormones, that illicit drug use in athletes is under-reported and that organised crime is moving in on Australian sport.

The former head of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Agency (ASADA) described the ACC's findings as the blackest day yet for sport in this country. Significantly, these allegations were not confined to Olympic sports, but were aimed clearly at AFL and Rugby League clubs. But can the claims be substantiated?

Next on Four Corners reporter Geoff Thompson reveals what's really going on behind the scenes in professional sport. He finds that not only are athletes, including those from major football codes, taking performance-enhancing substances but that the current drug testing system is inadequate. It's also clear that sporting officials and politicians, up until now, have had very little appetite to stamp out drug taking and it has been whistleblowers who have borne the brunt of exposing drugs in sport, often to their detriment.

Who's Cheating Whom?, reported by Geoff Thompson and presented by Kerry O'Brien, goes to air on Monday 22nd April at 8.30pm. It is replayed on Tuesday 23rd April at 11.35pm. It can also be seen on ABC News 24 Saturday at 8.00pm, ABC iview and at abc.net.au/4corners.

Transcript

"WHO'S CHEATING WHOM?" - MONDAY 22 APRIL 2013

(Shane Charter on his property)

SHANE CHARTER, SPORTS BIOCHEMIST: I have been involved in many levels with performance enhancing drugs, and I understand them. I also understand the negative impacts.

SHANE CHARTER: I've luckily survived myself through a total blockage of my heart, through physical assaults, death threats, all the - the whole good, bad and the ugly of performance enhancing drugs.

KERRY O'BRIEN: Another window opens onto the murky side of professional sport. Welcome to Four Corners.

It's an interesting insight to the human condition that even though we've been exposed to scandal involving drugs in sport since 1950, we still want to believe that all our sporting heroes have achieved their status the honest way. Lance Armstrong was a classic case in point. When he was finally forced to come clean, millions of fans were still shocks, despite the weight of evidence that had accumulated over years. Now, we have another quandary. Two and a half months ago, the Australian Crime Commission, backed by two hard talking Federal Government ministers announced its belief that the use of drugs, notably new type of peptides, was wide spread within Australian sport, and it opened up opportunity for organised crime to move in. The shock waves are still reverberating, and we keep hearing various post scripts, particularly in two football codes. But still, no specific allegations and no hard evidence. If authorities were hoping for whistle blowers to come forward, they would have largely been disappointed. It's not even clear if some of these substances are banned or not. Tonight we talk to an insider, who says that performance enhancing drugs are a constant in Australian sport. That explains why it's been so hard to identify the users.

The reporter is Geoff Thompson.

(Series of clips showing AFL brawls and tackles)

GEOFF THOMPSON, REPORTER: Serious sport has been described as being more like war without the shooting than it is about fair play. But the 2013 season kicked off under a cloud far darker than any fan could imagine.

JASON CLARE: Today I am releasing the findings of a 12 month investigation by the Australian Crime Commission into drugs in Australian sport and its links to organised crime.

JOHN LAWLER: What we're dealing with is a threat of serious and organised crime, and it's pervasive.

JASON CLARE: The findings are shocking and they'll disgust Australian sports fans.

(Series of clips showing crowds and supporter cheering)

GEOFF THOMPSON: The Australian Crime Commission told us that not only were some of our heroes shooting up, but also straight through the heart of the sports our nation holds most dear.

KATE LUNDY: For those that wish to ruin the games that we love, the Government has a simple message. If you want to cheat we will catch you.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Details were thin. But Federal politicians and the chiefs of every major sporting code turned out to support the message that it was time to be afraid.

JASON CLARE: Don't underestimate how much we know and if you are involved in this come forward before you get a knock at the door

KATE LUNDY: We are well on the way to seeking out and hunting down those who will dope and cheat.

RICHARD INGS, FORMER HEAD OF ASADA: Well it's certainly Australia's blackest day in sporting history.

(Curtis Johnston practices sprinting)

GEOFF THOMPSON: Since the ACC report, the only player who's been publicly named as a suspected peptide user is 23 year old Curtis Johnston.

CURTIS JOHNSTON: I'm the only name out there; I'm the only real face behind any of it at the moment. And I'm pretty - I'm probably sure, you know, ASADA wants to put a face on it and they want someone they can label.

GEOFF THOMPSON: The up and coming Rugby League winger plays for the North Sydney Bears, a feeder club for the South Sydney Rabbitohs. The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority, ASADA began investigating him not for failing drug tests but because of text messages he sent.

NINE NEWS REPORTER: "Nine news has obtained test messages sent from his phone in which he appears to boast about his drug use: "Just been laying in bed with about three yabby pumps putting peptides into me the last two days bruz, haven't had any roids for a few weeks. I used to every off-season. Used to run the risk. Now I'm there and hopefully in the team so I rather not."

GEOFF THOMPSON: Curtis Johnston says it was just a joke gone wrong.

CURTIS JOHNSTON: Just stupid, stupid texts that I should never have said, um but just a joke, ah just mucking around. Some of the things I said, I said stuff about yabby pumps and stuff. Yabby pumps are about this big, like I was just joking around between personal - personal jokes between some of my good friends.

GEOFF THOMPSON: You said things ah like you know, you normally do them in the off season?

CURTIS JOHNSTON: Yeah, yeah.

GEOFF THOMPSON: I mean that doesn't sound good.

CURTIS JOHNSTON: Yeah, it doesn't sound good. I know it doesn't sound good, but you um, you just say these things. It's just joking, you know. You just joke about it. You want people to think - you just want people to think that. But like I said, I've been tested clean five times. I've never been tested positive once. There's nothing more you need to look at really.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Neither have any current players tested positive for performance enhancing drugs at the Manly Sea Eagles, the Cronulla Sharks or at the Essendon Bombers. But those NRL and AFL teams have been the focus of ASADA's investigation since the ACC report. The man the teams have in common is the sports scientist Stephen Dank.

STEPHEN DANK, SPORTS SCIENTIST: They certainly had all these robust discussions to make sure everything was compliant and they were happy with that. But there was always continual involve - continual discussion in terms of what else we could do.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Stephen Dank declined an invitation to speak with Four Corners. But he has maintained he's done nothing illegal or outside the code of the World Anti-Doping Agency known as WADA.

(Shane Charter on his property)

GEOFF THOMPSON: G'day Shane, Geoff Thompson, Four Corners

SHANE CHARTER: Hey Geoff, how are ya?

GEOFF THOMPSON: Yeah good.

GEOFF THOMPSON: On the outskirts of Melbourne, Four Corners found a man who says he worked with Stephen Dank for eighteen months before the Australian Crime Commission released its report.

SHANE CHARTER: Unfortunately we've now got to stick our head up higher than ever.

GEOFF THOMPSON: His name is Shane Charter. A decade ago he was helping professional athletes who were taking banned performance enhancing drugs. That was before he committed a crime and spent time in prison. This is his first media interview since the Australian Crime Commission went public.

SHANE CHARTER: The Stephen Dank scenario has - is like an onion, and the more we peel it back the more you'll be surprised.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Can you give us some sense of what your relationships?

SHANE CHARTER: Steve Dank has even been to this house that we reside in, met my family, been to my children's basketball matches, ah and there was an ongoing business relationship with Steve Dank, and I introduced him to a number of key personnel here in Melbourne.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Until now, Shane Charter has been a shadowy figure in the background of Australia's latest drugs in sport scandal.

SHANE CHARTER: I've done nothing wrong. I've not even been questioned by the police. No one'd charged me with anything.

GEOFF THOMPSON: The fitness guru, former Powerlifter and Bodybuilder has made friends in places both high and low.

SHANE CHARTER: I, I don't want to come across as the victim - I've done wrong things and I'm no angel, I've done things in the past.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Charter was jailed for two years in 2007 for trafficking amphetamines, a crime that grew directly out of his Powerlifting and dealing in performance enhancing drugs.

SHANE CHARTER: Fact of the matter is, the last five years I've rebuilt my life and um, I frankly don't need the headaches that are going on at the moment.

GEOFF THOMPSON: So this is the gym?

SHANE CHARTER: Yep.

GEOFF THOMPSON: And is this the trophy wall?

SHANE CHARTER: Ah yeah, it's a bit of history and it's ah some significant players I ah, helped in their endeavours, and they've signed their appreciation of those.

GEOFF THOMPSON: The wall of Shane Charter's personal gym proudly displays signed posters of Essendon's James Hird and Melbourne's Shane Woewodin who thanked Charter for helping him win the Brownlow medal in 2000.

SHANE WOEWODIN, MELBOURNE FOOTBALL PLAYER (2000): And last of all to Shane Charter, who's helped me along with my just - my diet and everything this year also and just been great for me.

SHANE CHARTER: And we see James Hird features prominently there.

GEOFF THOMPSON: And why is that?

SHANE CHARTER: Ah James, proud of the fact that I was able to help James in his twilight years to get that extra season out of him. These people aren't associated with performance enhancing drugs, especially Hirdy, he's the opposite, he's anti anything that will affect the player, the credibility of the industry, certainly James Hird would go nowhere near that.

GEOFF THOMPSON: There isn't much this trained biochemist couldn't tell clients who might be interested in using performance enhancing drugs. But he won't name the players that have used them.

SHANE CHARTER: In my competitive days it was not just steroids. We had a multitude of peptides, ah human growth hormones, insulin-like growth factors, ah a large variety of performance enhancing drugs were required to reach the pinnacle of your athletic career.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Just to be clear, ah you've assisted NRL players and AFL players with their use of performance enhancing drugs?

SHANE CHARTER: I've kept them in a safe and non-toxic range so that they didn't do long-term damage to themselves.

(Man gets ready to inject needle)

GEOFF THOMPSON: This isn't the first time Australia has struggled to solve the problem of performance enhancing drugs. Australian sport has lived through very dark days before.

SUE HOWLAND, FORMER ATHLETE: You don't have to be that smart to outsmart them. The athletes will always be ahead of them. Unless you get a stupid person like me. Yeah, a case of bad luck and stupidity.

(File footage of Sue Howland winning the 1987 Javelin throwing)

GEOFF THOMPSON: When Javelin thrower Sue Howland, tested positive for steroids in 1987, she never tried to deny it.

SUE HOWLAND: That - that's the way sport's gone. It is not - it is not a pure sport, just going in pure talent and hard training because all these athletes are very talented, they train unbelievably. So the person who comes out on top has to have that little bit of help, not a little bit of help, a great deal of help, to get above the other people that have also had that help. So it's almost, the whole thing is almost fair play. It's almost that everyone is on it, or nobody is on it.

COMMENTATOR: Sue Howland, representing Australia.

(Montage of athletes)

GEOFF THOMPSON: When Sue spoke out on Four Corners, it helped trigger a senate inquiry into Drugs in Sport in 1988, the year Ben Johnson tested positive at the Seoul Olympics. It produced the "Black Report" named after the Labor senator who led the inquiry. It revealed systematic doping of Australian athletes.

JOHN BLACK, FORMER SENATOR: If you want to win a lot of gold medals, um, sometimes, ah, the politicians who demand to see the gold medals, the, the administrators at the top, the promoters tend not to ask questions so you will see, ah, an institutionalised regime arise, ah, where athletes are given performance enhancing drugs and, ah, that was the finding of the, the Senate Committee at that time.

GEOFF THOMPSON: In the Australian Institute of Sport?

JOHN BLACK: Yes, yeah, yeah, yes.

GEOFF THOMPSON: The most damning evidence was uncovered within the AIS weightlifting program. Senior coaches were found to be providing athletes with steroids smuggled into Australia from overseas. The Black Inquiry heard that 30 per cent of track and field athletes at the AIS were also using drugs.

BRIAN ROE, ETHICS AND INTEGRITY UNIT, ATHLETICS AUSTRALIA: In the mid 1980s you - you would go to hotel rooms where sporting events - um, and I can speak specifically on, on athletic meets, where um doping occurred openly in athlete's rooms.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Long-time track and field official, Brian Roe, is the new head of Ethics and Integrity at Athletics Australia.

BRIAN ROE: You'd go into athlete's rooms, the, the, the stuff would be there, um you'd go to even call, call rooms or marshalling areas at the track and it was, it was very open. Every - everybody ah was aware that - not everyone was doping but everyone was aware that people were doping.

(Shotgun fired to start race)

RACE STARTER: Yeah!

GEOFF THOMPSON: Maurie Plant has worked with sportspeople around the world. He's been the international liaison officer for Athletics Australia since 1987 and recently brought the Jamaican sprinter, Asafa Powell here to run the Stawell Gift. He says he's alarmed by the Australian Crime Commission report.

MAURIE PLANT, ATHLETICS AUSTRALIA INTERNATIONAL LIAISON OFFICER: Like most Australians, I was very shocked. Never thought we'd be hit, ah hit over the head with it in our own country in the codes that we know and love and respect so much.

(Maurie Plant walking along track)

GEOFF THOMPSON: But back in 1989 Maurie Plant was right at the centre of a 'drugs in sport' allegation. The Black Report found that while he was assistant manager of Australia's track and field team, he asked heptathlete Jane Flemming, to provide a urine sample as a substitute for Sue Howland's sample in an anti-doping test.

SUE HOWLAND: I think then Jane Fleming went in and said that she'd been made to do a - a substitute sample for me and that's where it went from there, and it became a massive big deal and I didn't know anything about it.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Maurie Plant told the inquiry the substitution never happened, because he flushed Flemming's sample down the toilet.

GEOFF THOMPSON: What did you think about that - that enquiry and what it found and what sort of effect did it have on you?

MAURIE PLANT: Loose. It was a loose enquiry.

GEOFF THOMPSON: And why's that?

MAURIE PLANT: It was very, I thought very- I-it was ah, just broad brushstrokes.

GEOFF THOMPSON: While Maurie Plant's career in sports administration survived the inquiry, John Black's political career did not.

JOHN BLACK: All the politicians at that time wanted to do with athletes, was get photographed with their arm around them. The idea that they could be unworthy in terms of being cheats was something that was an anathema to, to them. Conducting the inquiry didn't make me the most popular boy with the Hawke Government, let me tell you, they hated it. Couldn't wait to see an end to it.

GEOFF THOMPSON: What did it do to you and your career and the direction of your life?

JOHN BLACK: Well I finished shortly after the second in - report was concluded so I, I think that answers that question.

(Photo montage of Craig Watson.)

GEOFF THOMPSON: John Black's inquiry led directly to the creation of Australia's first drug testing agency, ASDA. It was still in its infancy when former champion Shot Putter Craig Watson, tested positive in Edinburgh in the lead up to the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. He was using a drug called Clenbuterol which had only just been banned.

CRAIG WATSON, FORMER ATHLETE: When my little, my little, ah, episode happened it was in - I was in the B squad for the Olympics. Um, and on that particular day there was a number of other - a number of other Australian athletes that went on the same thing. Ah, those ones were a little more, um, higher regarded I suppose than I was. So I took it and they - and everything just seemed to be nice and squeaky clean for them you know.

GEOFF THOMPSON: And, and how did you know that they tested positive?

CRAIG WATSON: It come from the gob of one of them. He goes 'F', oh I'll swear, he goes 'F**K mate, I didn't know that was, that was banned, the stuff, we're gone'.

GEOFF THOMPSON: But he wasn't?

CRAIG WATSON: But he wasn't.

GEOFF THOMPSON: And you were?

CRAIG WATSON: I was.

SUE HOWLAND: Everyone was talking about it, how Craig Watson had come up positive from Clenbuterol, which at that stage was a fairly new drug and also as about half a dozen of the other Australian athletes had come up positive, and that was suppressed. They - those, those positive tests were thrown out and Craig was made the scapegoat and basically he was made the scapegoat because he was expendable.

CRAIG WATSON: The others went to the Olympics, you know, but it's just sour grapes. You know what I mean? F**k. There were others that did exactly the same thing as me, and a couple of those people are very prominent. Yeah. And some of those - some of those particular - some of those ones have very short memories mate, very short memories especially when they start grandstanding about, about drugs in sport, very short.

RICHARD INGS, FORMER HEAD OF ASADA: Going back to 1992, anti-doping was a cottage industry; it's come a long, long, long way since then. There are now standard rules, standard appeals processes in place.

GEOFF THOMPSON: ASADA cost Australians about 15 million dollars last year and facilitated more than 7000 drug tests. Fewer than one half of one per cent of those tests were positive. Testing has always been justified by not just fair play, but athletes' health.

JOHN BLACK: Our major focus was on saving athletes' lives. I mean we dealt with athletes who had maimed themselves because they'd taken too many drugs. They ran themselves sterile. We dealt with women who'd turned themselves into men. We, we took evidence from them. I mean we saw first-hand, what happened in East Germany and it was very, very ugly and we wanted to make sure that didn't happen in Australia.

DEAN JONES, FORMER CYCLIST: I was, you know, literally a micro millimetre away from ah, from killing myself accidentally.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Dean Jones grew up inspired by a Grandfather who played Rugby for Australia.

DEAN JONES: Even my, you know my passion and love for my grandfather. I still chose to um to take, you know - or dope and take performance enhancing drugs, and I still- I, I, I think I have to put it down to sort of peers and a combination of things, and it was around you, and also just young. You know, we were all young.

GEOFF THOMPSON: In the early 1990s when he was in his 20s, Dean Jones was breaking into Europe's professional cycling circuit. The experience nearly killed him.

DEAN JONES: I did a course of EPO, that um I um, had sort of borrowed some money and ah from my family and I didn't tell them what it was for, and I thought this is my last shot. And I, and I um I, I bought some and it was known through my doctor that you did have to take ah iron to strengthen the new cells, so I bought some iron while I was in Germany, didn't read the package properly, and was injecting intravenously iron into my body. And um my vision started to go and everything, my heart rate accelerated and, and ah, and ah and something happened, whether it was someone looking over me or whatever, but um I stopped, and then I sort of took that information back to my doctor and told him what I'd done. And he was just like, man, you know, you were so close to dying of a cardiac arrest because you're injecting pure iron into your, intravenously into your blood.

(Dean around his art works)

GEOFF THOMPSON: Now an artist living in Melbourne, Dean Jones was lost and depressed when he gave up full-time cycling and the drugs. He's only recently told his family and the world that he doped while cycling overseas.

DEAN JONES: For me, the first time - the decision to dope, and there's a lot of people think that it's about winning, it's not, it's for me it was sort of coming back from injury and, and um having a bout of illness and, and sort of not wanting to be thrown on. You know, when any athlete has an illness or sickness you're kind of just thrown to the side, there's no security there of nurturing to come back to the sport. So for me, that initial choice was sort of vitamins and, and then it proceeded to other things.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Like Lance Armstrong, Dean Jones never once tested positive. He says knowing how long drugs stay in your system is the key to doping success.

DEAN JONES: So most drugs had, oh you had to go off 24 hours beforehand, or you could take that on the day, but you know only take this much, or you know you had to be off this two weeks before an event a-and things like that. And even in a random drug test case you had a 24 hour period to do a random drug test back in the '90s. So you could sort of escape for that period and then sort of flush your system out with high doses of intravenous vitamin C and thing - and lots of other things and um, and be clear for, for the test.

(Shane talking to Geoff over papers)

GEOFF THOMPSON: With Shane Charter's help athletes could guarantee they would pass any drug tests.

SHANE CHARTER: So, when you're looking after athletes in order to make sure that they do comply and pass all the tests, the only way you can do that 100 per cent is to make sure that their blood or urine samples are passed through an IOC accredited lab. And then each report would come back on the individual ah player or athlete, tell you whether any of the um steroids were present, what their Testosterone, their Testosterone ratio was. Even if a steroid was not found present but the ratio was above the upper limit they would be deemed positive.

GEOFF THOMPSON: So you, with the athletes you're working with, could take samples of urine or blood, put them through an International Olympic accredited laboratory, and ah, and it would come back saying your athletes were clean?

SHANE CHARTER: Yes.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Or not?

SHANE CHARTER: Or not.

GEOFF THOMPSON: And what would, what would they- What would you do then?

SHANE CHARTER: If they came back and they weren't passing the test, then depending on the product and the timeline up to the event, um that athlete may pull a hamstring and not go to that event. There's a difference between being shown positive and using performance enhancing drugs, and that's, that's the issue I'm trying to bring to light. And as I said before...

GEOFF THOMPSON: Is this, is this illegal? Was it illegal to use this?

SHANE CHARTER: No, not illegal, no. It's not illegal. No. And that's, that's the point. What I'm saying is there's ways and means around all this, and as part of the solution, unless you know where all the areas of problems lie, then how can you provide a viable solution to the current problem?

(Series of clips showing Powerlifting champions)

(Song - 'Bad to the bone' by George Thorogood)

POWERLIFTING COMPETITION MC: We are well tested, we're happily tested, we're happily a very natural sport, and that's what we want to encourage.

(Song - 'We will rock you' by Queen)

GEOFF THOMPSON: All the athletes competing with Powerlifting Australia are drug tested. Last month it held its national championships in Melbourne. The records set here are recognised around the world by organisations affiliated with the International Powerlifting Federation.

ROBERT WILKS, POWERLIFTING AUSTRALIA CEO: The three lifts we use, the squat, the bench press and the dead lift are the absolute benchmarks of strength. They're the core of weight training programs for an absolute multitude of sports. The knowledge we have is invaluable to many of these sports. Ah, and equally the potential for us to preach the right message is enormous in the drugs and sport area.

GEOFF THOMPSON: And also for others to preach the wrong message?

ROBERT WILKS: Equally so. That is a much more influential tool than our friends at the Sports Commission realise.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Robert Wilks has been the face of Australia's drug-tested Powerlifting competitions for as long as anyone can remember. The scoring system now used around the world is even named after him. He's a passionate opponent of performance enhancing drugs.

ROBERT WILKS: Because sport is destroyed by drugs, because sport becomes artificial, sport becomes a battle of chemists. Sport is no longer a test of a person's character, it's no longer a test of a person's dedication and intelligence and native ability. The social lessons we can learn from sport, the moral lessons we can learn are destroyed. That positive influence on society is taken away if drugs in sport are allowed to fester.

(Powerlifters are cheered on by onlookers)

GEOFF THOMPSON: This is the other face of Powerlifting in Australia. Its competitions are never drug tested. The Council of Australian Powerlifting Organisations, or CAPO as it is known, held State titles in Hobart last month.

ROBERT WILKS: This is a, a small group which is not represent of our sport, which have chosen to take the path of not having drug testing or not being involved in drug testing, which unfortunately now in recent years has gone further and been associated with various criminal gangs and that's not a healthy path even morally or in terms of physical health.

GEOFF THOMPSON: In Hobart Wayne Howlett squatted 420 kilograms, 60 kilos more than the official drug tested Australian record.

GEOFF THOMPSON (to Robert Wilks): How do you feel when they ah, make claims to, to new world records?

ROBERT WILKS: Well when I stop laughing ah, I feel somewhat, you know I couldn't say cheated because there's no credibility to these claims of world records.

GEOFF THOMPSON: But the fact that some CAPO members have criminal records is not in dispute. Wayne Howlett's violent past has included prison time for drug offences. Angelo Galati, or Mr Bench as he is known in Melbourne, was found guilty of trafficking steroids. Neither man agreed to be interviewed. CAPO competitions have also been held in bikie clubhouses.

ROBERT WILKS: I've made myself a little bit prominent over the years by ah, contacting ASADA and, and related authorities and saying there is a serious problem here, it's a public health problem, a criminality problem, it's growing and growing and the mechanisms of ASADA doesn't address that issue at all.

GEOFF THOMPSON: ASADA has no jurisdiction over CAPO and other organisations not recognised by the Australian Sports Commission. But back in 2007, Robert Wilks wrote to Richard Ings who was then head of ASADA. He asked that ASADA look at the criminal connections of some of CAPO's members.

RICHARD INGS: The allegations that were levelled by Robert at that particular time were very subjective, they were his personal point of view, there was no additional evidence which was provided to support his accusation and the advice that was given to the Powerlifting association was to work with their off shoot splinter groups within their sport, unite the sport, bring them all under one umbrella so they could fall clearly under the - under the jurisdiction of an organisation like ASADA for basic testing.

GEOFF THOMPSON: But isn't it ASADA's job to investigate such allegations and to refer them on?

RICHARD INGS: Oh absolutely, look it is ASADA's role to pass on intelligence that it may have credible intelligence it may have of criminal misconduct.

GEOFF THOMPSON: So why didn't you?

RICHARD INGS: Well again, I don't recall exactly what the situation was in 2007, I don't recall exactly the information that was provided by Robert, I don't recall exactly what the protocols at that early stage of ASADA were in place for sharing credible intelligence such as that with other organisations.

SHANE CHARTER: I had to go over and do the quality control, make sure that what we were bringing in was in fact the right performance enhancing drugs of good quality. Um, and that was fine. We both made it to the World Titles. We were both on top of the world. His association with outlaw motorcycle gangs then ah, put the pressure on him to bring other products through.

SHANE CHARTER: Since you guys have mentioned peptides, it's a huge growth market. And anyone with business acumen realises that a growth market is a good market to be in, and when they control the other end of that market, the top end of the market, you know, it's the same people trying to preserve their market entity.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Shane Charter believes those same people may be trying to shut him up. He says he's received death threats and his house has been broken into.

SHANE CHARTER: The undesirables that were involved in that side of things ah feel that I had too much knowledge and didn't want me to back up any of the Australian Crime Commission claims. And as such um, made it abundantly clear to me that I was not to speak to anyone. Um, I've had death threats.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Sounds like some of those threats have shaken you up?

SHANE CHARTER: Mm.

GEOFF THOMPSON: You don't want to tell us about that?

SHANE CHARTER: Mm, no.

NEWS REPORTER (2011): If you though the boys looked good this year watch out for 2012.

DEAN ROBINSON, ESSENDON HIGH PERFORMANCE MANAGER: We're going to become a strong team, we're going to become a lot bigger bodied team and we're gonna learn to run a lot harder, so...

GEOFF THOMPSON: Dean Robinson and Stephen Dank worked together at the Manly Sea Eagles, before reteaming at Essendon. Stuart Cormack was Essendon's fitness coach before they arrived. Now teaching at the Australian Catholic University, he made his name during an eight year stint with the West Coast Eagles. This is the first time Stuart Cormack spoken about being sacked from Essendon.

STUART CORMACK, FORMER ESSENDON FITNESS COACH: I've never hidden from that fact, I'm, I'm not ashamed of it, ah that organisation had a view on the path they wanted to take, they didn't believe I was the person for that role. Um, they're entitled to do that.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Stuart Cormack disagreed with the speed with which Essendon wanted to build up its players.

STUART CORMACK: There was certainly a desire to, you know get the athletes bigger and, and stronger ah fairly quickly. But you know there was never a suggestion ah from anyone that that would involve um, you know practices that I wasn't comfortable with from a, ah - from a legal perspective, just from a training design and implementation perspective.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Essendon got off to a cracking start in 2012, winning eight of its first nine games. But the season ended with seven consecutive defeats and an alarming number of soft tissue injuries.

STUART CORMACK: Generally, one of the things that can happen is that ah you know, you can have a mismatch between the training and, and the rec - ability to recover, and, and one of the negatives can be ah an injury in response to that.

GEOFF THOMPSON: The precise details of Essendon's training and supplement regime under Robinson and Dank remain secret. It's understood to have included injections of Thymosin and the peptide AOD-9604. Developed as an anti-obesity drug, AOD can also help the body repair.

DAVID KENLEY, METABOLIC PHARMACEUTICALS CEO: As I understand it, used by about half a dozen ah footballers at Essendon. Um, purely to assist in soft tissue injury and to aid um, the recovery so that the players that were injured could get back onto the ah, the pitch quicker.

GEOFF THOMPSON: David Kenley's pharmaceutical company owns the world rights to manufacture AOD. He discussed its use with Stephen Dank.

DAVID KENLEY: And whilst the um, the efficacy is not scientific. Um I understand it had an effect.

GEOFF THOMPSON: So it was your understanding that those players were recovering better, getting back on the field more quickly?

DAVID KENLEY: That was my understanding given the basis that it was being prescribed, yeah.

GEOFF THOMPSON: The status of AOD-9604 remains unresolved. It features in the Australian Crime Commission report as a peptide which can repair muscles and cartilage.

DAVID KENLEY: We can show scientifically and medically that our peptide has no anabolic effects.

GEOFF THOMPSON: WADA hasn't explicitly banned it yet but its status remains questionable because it's not a drug approved for human use.

GEOFF THOMPSON (to David Kenley): This is confusing?

DAVID KENLEY: Absolutely. Yeah. Um to be honest, I think the ah, the report um - the organised crime and drugs in sport has become a little bit confused. They, they don't understand the complexity of this area and so y-you know if you don't involve experts um what chance does a club have and more importantly what chance would a footballer or a sportsperson know how to review properly and in a considered way the issues involved.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Last year Essendon's players were asked to sign consent forms which stated that the drugs injected were within the WADA code. This form is for Thymosin which is mentioned in the ACC report. On one page it's a banned substance; on another it depends on the form used.

SHANE CHARTER: (Laughs) Yeah, that's ah, so there you go. You have it there, you've just summed it up nicely. It's confusing. Um it provides - and that provides opportunity to those that want to take advantage of it. Um that would be a, a good argument to say, well look, if they're contradicting, how are we supposed to know?

RICHARD INGS: These are professional athletes, they have ah in many cases multi-million dollar contracts, they have obligations to their club, they've got obligations to their code, they've got obligations to their fans and one of their biggest obligations is to ensure that they compete without the use of performance drugs and they are educated constantly to always ask to pick up the phone and call ASADA, to pick up the phone and call their sport to confirm what they're taking before they're taking it.

SHANE CHARTER: As you can see um from back in 2011, ah requesting various products, information on other products, um can you pass - can you get me these products? Um I'm asking who they're for and what they're to be used for.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Shane Charter says he sourced peptides in China which were ordered by Stephen Dank. Stephen Dank's lawyer has told Four Corners his client denies buying peptides through Charter.

SHANE CHARTER: And then obviously further down the track in 2013, as you can see here, um when the shit's hit the fan for him, ah sends through a message, 'I really value your support, I'm going to need friends like you in the next few weeks'.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Then Stephen Dank's text messages stopped.

SHANE CHARTER: We would discuss particular drug entities as to where they sat within the code as it currently stands. And under certain umbrella terms where there's somewhat ambiguity ah, we would as ah professionals discuss the possible arguments as to which way a particular product may be viewed by ASDA or WADA.

GEOFF THOMPSON: I mean he's on record as saying ah his job was to push it to the edge. Is that all he did, push it to the edge?

SHANE CHARTER: Well, at the end of the day Stephen Dank's the only one who can answer that question, um because no one was - no one understands or really knows beyond him what he physically injected into the players. Um but, as a sports scientist that is your role. Why would you be employed otherwise? Ah they've got a doctor, they can do blood tests. Your job as a sports scientist is to push the envelope and to know what you can get away with before it becomes banned, and to get results, otherwise you're out of a job.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Stephen Dank insists he stayed within the WADA code. Four Corners has seen no evidence which contradicts this. But substances indisputably on the banned list were discussed last year by officials from an AFL club other than Essendon and Melbourne. They were meeting with a compounding pharmacist.

(Re-enactment of conversation)

PHARMACIST: As a compound pharmacist I can make up almost anything you ask me to. I can supplement your players with whatever they need, tailored for each individual player's needs.

GEOFF THOMPSON: This re-enactment is based on a record of the conversation. We agreed not to identify any of the participants.

PHARMACIST: There are ways of avoiding things. I deal with a lot of players and athletes who take growth hormones and getting past the GH test is child's play. You've just keep an eye on the relevant markers.

CLUB OFFICIAL: I keep hearing that a lot of players are using it.

PHARMACIST: If your players use growth hormones properly their performances will go through the roof, yeah? If that's the road you want to go down, I can provide the prescriptions, basically whatever you want. Whatever the product, you tell me, and I will make it happen in respect to medications. I've got all the right doctors on board to help.

PHARMACIST: Growth hormone basically turns back the clock; it makes your body regenerative. But it's expensive, which is why a lot of players use peptides, and there's a false notion that peptides are better than GH, which is bullshit. Peptides are cheaper, simpler, and easier to get, that's all. It really depends what level you want to go.

GEOFF THOMPSON: The pharmacist tells the club's officials their players will beat the drug testers.

CLUB OFFICIAL: And they definitely can't be picked up when they're used in the right way?

PHARMACIST: No. No way. No way in the world. Basically, by giving footy players growth hormone, we simply put them in a regenerative state again. You're going to win more games of footy if all your players are regenerative. What an advantage, hey? For your club to have this ahead of other clubs.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Records of mysterious meetings are one thing. Proving that players have used banned drugs is quite another.

MAURIE PLANT: At the moment I think that ah, I think now that ASADA has actually put itself in the hot seat, they should be given the amount of time they need to complete their investigations, but they're gonna have to put up, and they're gonna have to put up to satisfy a public, ah which has become now very, very ah questioning of ah of what's going on in Australian sport.

JOHN BLACK: Every three or four years, every five years you need to take a look at sport. You need to have a look at the problems. What drugs are new? Now that's a job that I'm not sure that it's ASADA's to do at this stage but I think it - that's something that could be done by, by a tribunal. Have a look at the problem, see what's emerging, sift through the evidence. You don't go out and rehearse your angry look and do a press conference and spill it everywhere. You actually use it. You know, there are two types of people in sport I've found: those who like to talk tough but carry a very little stick, and those who do the hard yards and catch people; two different types.

(Curtis Johnston walking into court)

GEOFF THOMPSON: Rugby league's Curtis Johnston remains the only player known to have been interviewed by ASADA since the ACC released its report.

CURTIS JOHNSTON: Supremely confident but pretty nervous, see what happens.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Two weeks ago, he learnt he was off the hook.

CURTIS JOHNSTON: Yeah they just - they, they didn't have any eviden - evidence to back up what they were trying to say and, yeah at the end of the day I'm a clean athlete so, that was proved and ah they done their job well. I appreciate ASADA's time and yeah, we just done well today and looking forward to getting back on the field.

(Curtis playing amongst team)

GEOFF THOMPSON: And yesterday, he did.

KERRY O'BRIEN: Clearly not an easy field to cut a straight line of investigation through. We all look forward to the day the tough political rhetoric is actually backed up by results. We can leave you on a happy note this week, if you saw our story on organ donation two weeks ago you'll remember the plight of young Kelly McInnes, who was waiting uncertainly for a life saving liver transplant. Kelly had the transplant last week and is progressing very well in Melbourne's Austin Hospital. We wish her all the best with her recovery.

Until next week, Good Night.

END OF TRANSCRIPT

Background Information

CORRESPONDENCE

Questions Addressed to Stephen Dank - Read the questions addressed to former Essendon sports scientist Stephen Dank by Geoff Thompson relating to his investigation into drugs in sports. [PDF 250Kb]

Is it OK for Athletes to use Performance Enhancing Drugs | IQ2 - Intelligence Squared debates (IQ2) will be tackling the pros and cons of sports doping at the Sydney City Recital Hall on May 9. Is it time to give in and level the playing field by decriminalising? These Oxford University style forums tackle issues of public policy in a robust but civilised manner, and aim to raise the level of public discussion on important issues. Speakers include Shane Gould, Peter FitzSimons and Prof Julian Savulescu. Read more about the event.

RELATED NEWS, ANALYSIS AND MEDIA

LISTEN: Who's afraid of ASADA? | Background Briefing | 21 Apr 2013 - The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority has cast a net over clubs and players in our two biggest football codes as it probes the use of banned substances. But just how widespread is the use of performance enhancing drugs in professional sport in Australia, and how effective is ASADA at catching high-level drug cheats?

BLOG: The Sport Doping Enquiry Isn't Just Stupid - It's Wrong | The Monthly | 22 Apr 2013 - More than two months have passed since the release of the ACC's report into organised crime and drugs, the 'darkest day in Australian sport', a date that now seems to signify little more than the start of a fishing expedition. Moby Dick was the target, but so far the ACC and the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority have failed even to land a minnow. By Richard Cooke.

Excess Baggage | Outer Edge Magazine | 2013 - Dean Jones was a professional elite road cyclist in Europe for more than ten years. In part one of a three part series, he recounts how doping first crept into his life; as a disguised infiltrator that took the severest of tolls on the noble ambitions he hatched as a boy growing up in country NSW.

VIDEO: Interview with Richard Ings | 7.30 | 11 Apr 2013 - The former head of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority clarifies the grey areas surrounding the Essendon Football Club's supplements regime.

Johnston cleared, but fears name is tarnished | SMH | 10 Apr 2013 - Curtis Johnston, the first rugby league player stood down following the Australian Crime Commission's report into drugs in sport, fears his name will remain tarnished despite being cleared of doping by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority.

LISTEN: Faster, stronger,higher: drugs in sport | RN Life Matters | 11 Feb 2013 - The Australian Crime Commission has reported that there is widespread use of banned substances in professional sport. So what are the health effects of these drugs and what more can be done to reduce their use? An in-depth discussion with Natasha Mitchell.

ACC gives codes permission to notify clubs | ABC News | 11 Feb 2013 - The Australian Crime Commission has given the AFL and NRL permission to inform clubs identified by the commission's investigation into doping in sport.

LISTEN: Crime and drugs in sport | Radio National | 10 Feb 2013 - Australia's sporting world is reeling from suggestions that some of our sporting heroes have been taking performance enhancing drugs, that teams pressured young players to take drugs and sign documents swearing to secrecy... When the stakes are so high, should we expect any better?

Doping report the 'tip of the iceberg': Vic Police | ABC News | 9 Feb 2013 - Victoria Police says the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) report into doping and match-fixing in Australian sport may have only uncovered the "tip of the iceberg". By Karen Barlow.

From peptides to hormones: doping drugs explained | ABC News | 8 Feb 2013 - Australian athletes have been turning to a "new generation" of banned substances to get the edge over their opponents, according to today's Australian Crime Commission report. But how much do you know about the substances like GHRP, pig brain extract, and the other weapons in the dopers' chemical arsenal?

Sports scientists 'given too much power in clubs' | ABC News | 8 Feb 2013 - The former head of Sports Medicine Australia says sports scientists have too much power in clubs, following the Australian Crime Commission's scathing report on drugs in sport.

MEDIA RELEASE: Organised Crime and Drugs in Sport | Ministerial Joint Statement | 7 Feb 2013 - The Minister for Home Affairs, Jason Clare and the Minister for Sport, Kate Lundy. made a joint statement to the press about the Australian Crime Commission's investigation into the integrity of Australian sport and the relationship between professional sporting bodies, prohibited substances and organised crime.

VIDEO: Medical expert makes case for hormones in sport | 7.30 | 6 Feb 2013 - Dr Robin Willcourt was consulted by Essendon's Steve Dank and Dean Robinson last year and outlines what he told them about sports supplements while he also suggests the use of testosterone and hormones to return athletes to their normal levels of those substances should be allowed.

Claire Squires: amphetamine stimulant 'had role' in runner's fatal heart attack | The Guardian | 30 Jan 2013 - The unexplained death of Claire Squires, a fit and healthy 30-year-old, one mile from the end of the London marathon last year, caught the country's imagination... a coroner ruled that the most likely cause off her death was a single dose of Jack3d, a performance-enhancing supplement that at the time was legal to buy, possess and use.

KEY REPORTS AND DATA

Organised Crime and Drugs in Sport | Australian Crime Commission | Feb 2013 - New Generation Performance and Image Enhancing Drugs and Organised Criminal Involvement in their use in Professional Sport. [PDF 926Kb]

World Anti-Doping Code | WADA | 2009 - The Code is the core document that provides the framework for harmonized anti-doping policies, rules and regulations within sport organizations and among public authorities. Download here.

Organised Crime in Australia 2011 Report | ACCC | 2011 - The report is the third and largest report of its kind that the Australian Crime Commission has produced since 2008. The latest edition provides the most comprehensive unclassified profile of organised crime in Australia, including the impact on sport and fitness industries. The chapter 'Performance and Image Enhancing Drugs' is on page 69. [PDF 2.65Mb]

Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) | @anti_doping - ASADA urges any individual or club with information about doping in sport to contact it through its Hotline on 13 000 27232, or visit their website website. www.asada.gov.au/

World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) | @wada_ama - Key activities include scientific research, education, development of anti-doping capacities, and monitoring of the World Anti-Doping Code. www.wada-ama.org/

WATCH RELATED FOUR CORNERS

Lance and the Truth | 4 Feb 2013 - He's a drug cheat, a bully and a liar who abused his best friends to keep a terrible secret, but has Lance Armstrong finally told the truth?